COTTON CULTURE. 113 



First of all, let the planter who aspires to brilliant 

 success in his profession prepare his lands so as to prevent 

 washing, and retain in the soil all the fertilizing salts he 

 finds there, and all he may add by generous manuring. 

 The precise methods by which this is done are given in 

 detail in the first pages of this chapter. 



Now let him arrange for a rotation of crops as follows. 

 Divide the plowed land into three parts or tracts, not by 

 fences, but " in your mind's eye, Horatio," assigning for 

 each farm laborer five acres in cotton, ten in corn, rye, 

 wheat, oats, barley and potatoes, according to soil and 

 climate, and allowing five to remain fallow. Calculate to 

 have on the farm stock enough to consume all the food 

 that grows on those ten acres per hand, mules, horses, 

 oxen, cows, sheep, goats and poultry, and lay it down as 

 a first principle that no manure is to be wasted. For that 

 purpose provide a series of stock pens on the most level 

 land that the place affords, fence them high, and throw up 

 a little bank at the fence, so the tendency of the wash 

 will be towards the centre. Here erect a shed on four 

 posts, the ends that enter the ground being charred. Let 

 the shed be about twenty feet square and hip-roofed. 



Let every animal on the place be confined at night in 

 these enclosures, or in stables, and provide an abundance 

 of litter. Leaves from the forest, and particularly pine 

 straw, is better even than wheat or oat straw, as it is 

 shorter and contains more potash. Moisture is needed in 

 order to rot any litter you may use. Yet, if the manure 

 heap is too wet, you carry an unnecessary amount of wa- 

 ter into the field. Hence the best plan is, to scrape the 

 cattle yards on wet days, piling the compost under the 

 sheds, there to ferment and decay. As soon as a yard is 

 scraped down, cover with fresh litter from the forest ; this 

 also can be more conveniently gathered on wet days, or 

 immediately after a ram, while it is yet too moist for 

 plowing. When the successive layers are thus collected 



